Trinidad and Tobago's offshore basins, situated at the intricate southern margin of the Caribbean Plate, present significant opportunities for hydrocarbon exploration. The 2025 Deep Water Competitive Bidding Round has opened 26 offshore blocks for exploration, underscoring the need to integrate updated regional geologic models from geodynamics to petroleum systems. This study is founded on the experience of Victor Graterol – a mining geologist who, over fifty years, had compiled the extensive gravimetric and magnetic databases used for depth-to-basement model calculations and sediment cover estimates. By integrating these datasets with public well, seismic, and surface geology data, we reveal the complex tectonic framework and basin architecture of the Greater Caribbean and the Northern margin of South America that control the development of the region's petroleum systems. We calibrated these models with our knowledge of the organic geochemistry of the Caribbean oils available from the GSI database. We identified the links between the history of the Caribbean Plate, source rock, and reservoir deposition trends that form new exploration opportunities, thereby reducing exploration risks and enhancing the understanding of Trinidad and Tobago's offshore petroleum systems.
Trinidad and Tobago have long been central to hydrocarbon production in the Caribbean. The 2025 Deep Water Competitive Bidding Round offers 26 offshore blocks along the eastern and northern coasts. There is a renewed motivation to explore the extent of the known petroleum systems and deepwater frontiers. The region's geological complexity, arising from the interaction of the Caribbean, South American, and North American Plates and the subduction of the Atlantic Oceanic Crust, necessitates advanced geophysical techniques to delineate subsurface structures accurately.
Over the last twenty years, Venezuelan geology remained a white spot in all regional studies due to political problems in the country. We integrated a hundred years of exploration and geologic study of Venezuela into the regional framework. Composite regional Bouguer gravity anomalies were calculated to build depth-to-basement models calibrated against well, seismic, and surface geological data to better understand the subsurface architecture. The expertise of Victor Graterol and his comprehensive gravimetric and magnetic databases integrated with the local petroleum systems knowledge of the experts of U3 Explore are pivotal in this endeavor.
The collaboration of U3 EXPLORE subject matter experts (SME) in the geology of South America and the Caribbean provided the required geological control to gravity inversion techniques for obtaining accurate depth-to-basement models. The SME ensures that the gravity-based interpretations are geologically realistic, reducing uncertainty in the basin's structural framework. U3 Explore strengthens this process by strategically focusing efforts on enhancing petroleum system understanding, play fairway mapping, and source rock distribution analysis.
The Gravimetric and Magnetic Database of South, Central, and North America and Surrounding Areas, compiled by Professor Víctor Graterol over five decades, is a comprehensive geophysical resource available through U3 EXPLORE. This meticulously curated database serves as a vital tool for researchers and industry professionals, enabling accelerated exploration and analysis of geophysical properties across the Americas.
T&T bid round dataset could be enhanced by this new study that used and calibrated with organic geochemistry and deformable plates reconstructions the Graterol Gravimetric and Magnetic Database. This is a unique and invaluable resource for petroleum and mineral exploration across South, Central, and North America, including the Caribbean region. This database is the product of Victor’s fifty years of continuous enhancement of integration of aerial, terrestrial, and satellite-based gravimetric and magnetic studies. One of the most critical challenges in using gravimetric and magnetic data for exploration is the fragmentation of existing datasets, making regional and local-scale integration time-consuming and complex. The Graterol Database solves this challenge by standardizing, recalculating, and integrating diverse surveys into a unified dataset. This ensures consistency, accuracy, and efficiency when generating regional Bouguer anomaly maps, depth-to-basement models, and structural interpretations for hydrocarbon and mineral prospecting.
Key Reasons for Using this Unique Database:
- Comprehensive Coverage: Unlike individual datasets, which are often limited in scope, the Graterol Database integrates multiple vintages, scales, and resolutions with continuous updates of the most recent versions of the satellite-derived and ground measurements of gravity and magnetics.
- Enhanced Detection of Undiscovered Prospects: The database highlights regions with hydrocarbon and mineral potential that may have been previously overlooked, providing new leads for exploration.
- Seamless Integration with Other Geoscience Data: When combined with published seismic, well, and geological data, the database enhances structural and basin modeling, leading to more accurate assessments of petroleum systems.
- Supports Offshore and Frontier Exploration: The database is particularly valuable for deepwater and frontier basins, where traditional gravity data is sparse. It includes Bouguer Anomaly values for marine areas in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, filling critical data gaps.
The Graterol Gravimetric and Magnetic Database is a game-changer for energy and mineral exploration. Its ability to integrate, standardize, and rapidly provide high-quality geophysical data allows companies, researchers, and government agencies to de-risk exploration, optimize investments, and accelerate discoveries across the Americas.
Victor Graterol’s Depth to Basement calculations are used in the Deformable (Palinspastic) Modeling of Basin Evolution (DMBE) products from U3 EXPLORE created in collaboration with Global Tectonics. These Plate Reconstructions of basin subsidence, structural deformation, and sedimentary fill history derisk exploration programs. Unlike traditional rigid plate models, DMBE accounts for pre-seafloor spreading deformation, allowing for more accurate predictions of crustal thickness variations, basin geometries, thermal conditions, and hydrocarbon migration pathways. The collaboration between U3 Explore and Global Tectonics ensures that this methodology is applied effectively, incorporating historical and new drilling data, regional seismic interpretations, and play-based exploration frameworks to refine the understanding of petroleum systems, play fairways, and source rock potential. By linking plate tectonic reconstructions, sedimentation processes, and thermal history modeling, this approach significantly improves petroleum system analysis in structurally complex basins such as the Caribbean and South American margins, where conventional methods often fail to capture geological intricacies. This collaboration enables energy companies and researchers to evaluate basin evolution over geological time scales, ensuring better hydrocarbon prospectivity assessments in both mature and frontier basins.
Products
· Project report describing the methods and project results in .pdf format.
· ArcGIS package with Bouguer, depth-to-basement, MOHO and sediment thickness grids in ascii format.
· Gravimetric and Depth to basement maps in GeoTIFF format.
· GIS portal for viewing/combining the individual maps and data layers.
Contact us at info@u3explore.com
